(A) The purpose of this policy is to communicate the Town Council’s internal control objectives to all employees and elected officials of the town and to firmly commit the town to the principles of internal controls as established by the State Board of Accounts.
(B) The town has a responsibility to establish and maintain an adequate system of internal controls and to furnish to the Town Council, governmental agencies, creditors and others reliable financial information on a timely basis. As the fiscal body, the Town Council expects the town administration and the town’s employees to effect an internal control environment with policies and procedures necessary to provide reasonable assurance that practices cause effective and efficient operations, reliable financial reporting, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations and to minimize the risk of loss.
(C) As the town’s chief financial officer, the Town Clerk-Treasurer will be the town’s chief agent in implementing and managing the internal control policies and procedure. As the individual with delegated approval authority, the Town Clerk-Treasurer shall be responsible for maintaining and supporting the system of internal controls. The Town Council directs the Clerk-Treasurer to monitor the necessary compliance with the policy on materiality and process for reporting material items and report noteworthy items to the Town Council.
(D) The materiality threshold for the town shall be $100. If the erroneous or irregular variance, loss, shortage or theft is not cash or a cash-equivalent, the value of the item at the time of the variance, loss, shortage or theft shall be used to determine whether the materiality threshold has been met.
(E) Knowledge of misappropriation and maintenance of documentation: all erroneous or irregular variances, losses, shortages or thefts of $100 or more shall be reported immediately to the State Board of Accounts. In addition, all erroneous or irregular variances, losses, shortages or thefts which occur more that three times in a month and which in the aggregate total $300 or more shall be reported immediately to the State Board of Accounts.
(F) A town employee or public officer who has knowledge of or reasonable cause to believe that there has been a misappropriation of public funds or assets of the public office shall immediately send written notice of the misappropriation to the State Board of Accounts and County Prosecuting Attorney.
(G) The town shall maintain records and documents concerning erroneous or irregular variances, losses, shortages or thefts in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and the internal control standards provided by the State Board of Accounts.
(H) The Town Council shall maintain records and documents concerning erroneous or irregular variances, losses, shortages or thefts in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and the internal control standards provided by the State Board of Accounts.
(I) The town hereby adopts the internal control standards developed by the State Board of Accounts as published in the Uniform Internal Control Standards for Indiana Political Subdivisions and as may be amended from time to time. Whenever the State Board of Accounts uniform internal control standards imposes a greater restriction or higher standard than is required by a provision of this section, the more restrictive provisions apply.
(Ord. 2016-4, passed 12-20-2016)